I cried tonight for a cat my brother and I buried. I found the poor dead animal in the shade under an evergreen with collar on, so he was someone's pet. Our family cat had been behaving uncharteristly. staying away from the patio and the inside of the house far longer than usual. This behavior had been going on for several weeks. She'd return for a few hours at night. This afternoon I went looking for her, wondering if she spent her time on the property, and as an answer to prayer I found her. She enjoyed much petting and as I rose to my feet I spied the strange, small mound beyond the backyard fence in the alley, partially covered by organic debris. I wonder if our beloved family pet, a cat social cat, had been a comfort to that poor creature in the time before it died. I recalled her walking off in that direction when I had encouraged her to enter the house days earlier. How I wish I had followed her! Had she wanted me to? So sad! So much heartache for that little animal that met his end there and the family that must be missing it, very likely hoping it would soon return! The corpse was stiff, any tag on the collar not visible, it's little paw curled up toward its neck. I couldn't determine what had killed it.
I thought of people.
I thought of people dying without the hope of eternal life.
How we get our attention taken by the poor suffering animals! How we love a good rescue story! And all around the world people also suffer. People are murdered, starved, diseased, homeless, cast out, dejected, despairing, slaughtered, imprisoned, persecuted, belittled, hated, despised. Worse than the deaths suffered in the "now" are the deaths of those who have not heard of Jesus and accepted His gift of eternal life to be lived in a condition without pain and suffering, tears or heartache. We love the good rescue stories, too. Do we forget we may play a part in those rescue stories?
In our fear do we sit in our protected bubbles, posting on social media about our angers and our whims and our vanities, blaming these things and those persons, nursing grudges, forwarding posts that tear down, titillate, belittle, mock, draw the minds of readers to ourselves or themselves, to sins of all sorts, and away from the Source of all life?
Time on earth is short. We don't know when our lives will end. How tragic, how empty, how sad, to have suffered in this world without securing eternal life! How tragic, how empty, how sad to have lived this life spreading scorn, nonsense, and vanity when we might be uplifting Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, God, and the unfathomable things He has done for us so that we might chose Him and lead others to choose Him!
Our time and access to the internet are talents entrusted to us so that we might build God's kingdom. Let us invest those talents to do just that.